PSINet and C&W peering

Tue Jun 5 16:24:01 UTC 2001

If exchange of IP traffic is ruled to be commerce then peering
policies would be regulated under the Sherman antitrust act.

It shall be unlawful for any person engaged in commerce, in the 
course of such commerce, to be a party to, or assist in, any 
transaction of sale, or contract to sell, which discriminates to his 
knowledge against competitors of the purchaser, in that, any 
discount, rebate, allowance, or advertising service charge is granted 
to the purchaser over and above any discount, rebate, allowance, or 
advertising service charge available at the time of such transaction 
to said competitors in respect of a sale of goods of like grade, 
quality, and quantity; to sell, or contract to sell, goods in any 
part of the United States at prices lower than those exacted by said 
person elsewhere in the United States for the purpose of destroying 
competition, or eliminating a competitor in such part of the United 
States; or, to sell, or contract to sell, goods at unreasonably low 
prices for the purpose of destroying competition or eliminating a 
competitor.

... if IP traffic exchange is interstate commerce ...

At 16:47 +0100 05-06-2001, Neil J. McRae wrote:
>  > That's a couple of hundred megabytes of
>>  flow that they can no longer bill to those customers.  I'd ALWAYS rather
>>  have my customers use our network for transit than have them peer directly
>>  with my peers and bypass the toll booth. 
>
>What an ideal carrot to ensure that we operators plan our networks
>well, if we do - we keep our customers. If we don't our customers find
>alternative means to provide what we are supposed too, and
>one way or another thats going to cost you.
>
>Personally speaking, I'm a little worred that this isn't the last
>C+W peering issue that we will hear about in the near future, unless
>of the new flows of customers abandoning them changes a few minds
>at corporate HQ, I've certainly heard from a large European C+W customer
>who is now seriously thinking about finding alternatives because of
>this action.
>
>Also, I couldn't recommend buying connectivity from any organisation who
>randomly disconnects people without consultation/communication to their
>customer base, and operates draconian and stupid peering policies.
>
>Regards,
>Neil.

-- 
Joseph T. Klein                                         +1 414 915 7489
Senior Network Engineer                                 jtk at titania.net
Adelphia Business Solutions                joseph.klein at adelphiacom.com

     "... the true value of the Internet is its connectedness ..."
                                                  -- John W. Stewart III